Rail bond



Aug; 19, 1924. 1,505,716

F. C. LAVARACK RAIL BOND Filed April 1922 IN VEN TOR A T'TORNEY Patented Aug. 19, 1924.

UNITED STATES" FREDERICK c. LAVARACK, or MONTCLAIR, NEW-JERSEY;

R IL BOND.

Application filed April: 4,

T0 aZZ wh0m it may concern.

Be it known that I, FREDERICK C. LAV- ARACK, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and a resident of Montclair, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Rail Bond, of which the following is a specification;

This invention relates to railway signal-. ling track circuit rail bonds.

The primary object of this invention is the production of a form of bond which will not be likely to break at a point adjacent the web of the rail.

A further object of the invention is the, production of a bond which is so stifi" that it will remainsubstantially as placed" and will not require the use of devices known as bond wire protectors to keep it in place.

Other objects and advantages willappear as the description of the particular physical embodiment selected to illustrate the invention progresses, and the novel features of the invention will be particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In describing the invention in detail, and the particular physical embodiment selected to illustrate the invention, reference is had to the accompanying drawings, wherein'I have illustrated a particular preferred physical embodiment of my invention and wherein like characters of reference designate corresponding parts throughout the several views, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of my improved rail bond in place connecting two rails, with certain parts broken away to more clearly show the construction: Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view on the plane indicated by the line IIII of Fig. 1, viewed in the direction of the arrows: Fig. 3, is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view on the plane indicated by the line III+III, Fig. 2.

4t designates the abutting ends of two rails, which are to be joined by an electrical conductor so that they will be at all times electrically continuous it being found that reliance cannot be placed on the mere contact of the rails.

It has been customary to bore two holes in the web of each rail and use two bond wires each end of each wire being held to the webs by a single grooved channel pin. By this method of construction it is necessary to bore four holes. The slngle unconnected wires are so flexible that it is necessary to use bond wire protectors to keep 1922. Serial m. 549,437.v

them in place so that they will not get upon the ballot the rail and be cut by a passing train or trip a track walker.

A more improved method is to use a duplex or two grooved channel pin as shown.

the patent to F. C. Lavarack, dated May 19, 1914, Number 15097340. This method also makes use of two wires although the necessity for boring fourholes is avoided as two are sufficient, one in the end of each rail.

I The difliculty experienced with thefirst ment oned construction which is also present in the Lava-rack construction is that the bond wires often break atthe point where they rest against the sharp edge of the hole in the Web of the rail. This breakage probably arises from the fact that the point ofcontact between the sharp corner of the hole in the rail and the'bond wireis a point for some reason extremely susceptible to cor-' rosion and the bond wire does frequently corrode at this point thus weakening it at this particular point. Another reason the bond wire is weak at this point is that it frequently gets nicked which not only weakens it but allows the hereinbefore men,

tioned corrosion to more easily and rapidly take place just at this particular point. Another cause for the breakage at this particular point is the vibration of the bond wire due to shaking and jarring of the point soon breaks the bond wire. Even if the bond wire hasnot been nicked or cor roded the continued vibrating of the bond wire against the sharp edge of the hole in the web'is very destructive of the bond wire and shortens its efiectivelife materially.

, In the present construction one hole only is bored in the web of each rail and a duplex channel pin is usedto hold the ends of two bond wires in contact with the rail,

The I duplex pins are designated by 5 in the drawing and the two bond wires by 6 and 7 o I In my improved construction, however, the two bond 1 wires. are tightly twisted throughout,,.their entire length except for the short ends which are in contact with the channel pin and rail. The result of this construction is that the bond wires are held from vibration on. the sharp corners 8 and 9 of the web of the rail and are held tightly against the channel pin which, as usual, is

thoroughly tinned; and' the sharp edges thereby destroyed. By this construction the vibration is transferred from a weak point,

that is, the point of contact of the bond with the edge of the hole in the web, to a point of normal. strength where no extreme 1y sharp corners to vibrate against exist.

From the foregoing description taken in connection with the drawings it will be understood that I have constructed a device for the purpose specified in which a chan-' long and as there are some two hundred and fifty thousand miles of railroad 1n the United States alone, it is readily seen that if all of the mileage were bonded the number of breakages would be enormous and the resulting expense very great because when a rail bond breaks it is necessary to bore new holes as the old holes are not suitable for re-use. Applicants invention is one of great comparative utility in the domain of railway signalling.

Although I have particularly described the construction of one physical embodiment of my invention, and explained the principle thereof, nevertheless, I desire to have it understood that the form selected is merely illustrative, but does, not exhaust the possible physical embodiment of; the idea of means underlying myinvention'.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent/of the United States, is: A bond for the abutting ends of two rails, each provided with an orifice, comprising channel pins, fitting within said orifices, and

the twisted portions adjacent the ends.-

causing the separated end portions to draw toward. each other intothe bottom of the grooves.

FREDERICK o. LAVARAGK, 

